XP and Media Player 9, Ruins Systems

[UATSWE]

About 6 months ago, I bought a brand new HP Pavillion 926 XT with Windows XP Home edition pre-installed.
After autoupdate decided I needed Windows Media Player 9, and installed it automagically for me, I had no use of Java(tm) or active X.
I could'nt open the system restore panel to fix it, could'nt open windows update site, and could'nt open the search companion, anything that uses Java(tm) or Active X on demand.
I contacted HP, which, by the way, I paid an extra $280 for special waranty tech. support (so there was no extra tech. support fee).
They told me it was a microsoft problem, so I contacted Microsoft.
Microsoft, in turn, said since my OS was preloaded, it was HP's problem, after keeping me on hold (telephone, long distance), for 25 minutes, then hung up on me.
After 3 more calls to MS, they decided they could indeed help me for a small fee of $30.
This small fee ended up being charged $97.50 to my credit card.
After I gave them my credit card number, they told me I needed a new computer!
Nothing more, just "You need a new computer".
I bought a new computer, and still had the same trouble 6 months later.
After another call to microsoft, I was so relieved to hear my problem was indeed with microsoft's programming.
I was told I needed to upgrade to windows XP Professional for a small charge of $129.95 and they would be happy to ship it immediately.
After installing windows XP Professional, I immediately installed windows media player 9 from the winddows update web site, and immediately after reboot. You guessed it!
No friggin JAVA! No friggin Search! No godarn System Restore!
WTF! WTF! WTF! WTF! WTF! WTF!
If ever I were to meet a microsloth exec. on the streets of phoenix, I'd beat the F*CK out of him with my bare hands!



If anyone else had this problem, let me know, i'm curious

Thanks,



Billy

 

[þÄ®âÐÖx]

Hmm.. I'm curious as to why you kept installing WMP9, despite the fact that it wrecked your computer before... just reformat, reinstall, DON'T install WMP9, and you're all set, no?

On the other hand, I've installed WMP9 on every computer I've had with WinXP Home or Pro, and I have never once encountered any kind of problems.

 

[neb1211]

wmp9 is evil. If any of the stuff that i hear about it is true then it is another one of microsofts attempts to take over the world.

 

[Dice]

same here i never had problems with wmp9 before

 

[A_Zip1]

ya no problems here i kinda like it, makes it fast and easy 2 burn music cd's

 

[þÄ®âÐÖx]

Hmm.. well it's definately easy, but I dunno about fast.. it seems to me that WMP's CD burning is pretty slow. Maybe it just doesn't support my burner or something..

 

[Ecniv]

Using WMP9 for a LONG time for just about everything, and no issues so far...

 

[plasmaorb]

I would just do like the other guys said... just reinstall the OS and start from scratch.
Guess thats the problem with buying computers from companies at times... you should of gotten yourself a Dell dude
HP/Compaq service sucks the proverbial donkey dong... you wait for a month of sundays to get a stupid answer. I had to do that with my HP laptop... nothing was wrong with it.. just needed to find a spec that they didnt have in the book or on the website.
Took me over an hour and 4 redirects to get to where i wanted to go.

 

[Qiranworms]

HP/Compaq service sucks the proverbial donkey dong... you wait for a month of sundays to get a stupid answer. I had to do that with my HP laptop... nothing was wrong with it.. just needed to find a spec that they didnt have in the book or on the website.
Took me over an hour and 4 redirects to get to where i wanted to go.

saying that "HP/Compaq service sucks" is a HUGE understatement.

Go to http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?threadid=69887 to see the first bit of a LONG saga my friend had with HPs support. After that all happened, it's been six months, they've given him an old iPaq (3870 I think, the only thing better then the Jornada is the screen) which spontaniously hard reset. He now has a Dell Axim, but is still waiting for the refund.


Support issues are, unfortunetly, a big reason not to build your own computer. Even more unfortunetly, the benifets as well as fun of building your own seem to be too tempting, and I do not see myself buying a desktop from dell or anyone.


Seriously, don't buy a new computer because support says so, especially when it's clearly a software problem. They know nothing anymore. A while ago, I had a connectivity problem with my cable modem. I had tried everything from power cycling to completely reinstalling drivers to resetting the settings and starting again. For ten calls they refused to admit it was their problem. One day, they FINALLY realised it was because there was no IP address for me on their server. IT WAS THEIR FAULT

 

[dethangel]

i have media player 9 on a win 2k and a xp machine and they both run fine, lol

my computer is a vpr matrix (i just liked the name and i got a nice price on it since i was a best buy employee) its really nice and i spent an extra $200 on the 3 year, in-home service plan, meanaing anything goes wrong with it until 2k6 thgey come to my house and fix it or take me to a best buy and give me a new one, rock on! and also with vpr matrix they are component, meaning they dont have everything on the motherboard so its easier to upgrade and it has 4 pci slots, 1 agp slot !!4!! 5.25" bays, 2 3.5" bays and can have up to !!4!! hard drives!!!!! came with 1gb ddr ram and 100gb hdd, go to: http://www.vprmatrix.com/ the new model comes stock raid enabled!!!! only alienwares come like that from the manufacturer!

and they all come with win xp, and are very expandable

[edit]

here is the new model:

Performance
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor at 3.06GHz with Hyper-Threading technology
533 MHz front side bus
512K processor cache
512MB 333MHz DDR memory
Intel RAID-enabled motherboard
Total 240GB hard drive capacity (Two 120GB drives)
Hard Drives configured for RAID striping to offer turbocharged performance
DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive
7200 RPM ATA/100 server grade hard drives
Connectivity
Integrated 10/100 network capability
6 high-speed USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 4 rear)
IEEE 1394 ports (1 front, 1 rear)
V.92 PCI 56K data/fax modem
1 parallel port
1 serial port
2 PS/2 ports (keyboard and mouse)
Music, movies & more
DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive
16X DVD-ROM drive
128MB GeForce4 Ti4200 graphics card
Soundblaster® Live! 5.1 audio card
Powered stereo speakers
Internet keyboard
Optical scrolling mouse
Microsoft Windows®XP Home with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Works®7.0
Details
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor at 3.06GHz with Hyper-Threading technology
533 MHz system bus
512K Level 2 cache memory
Intel Full ATX RAID-enabled system board
512MB DRAM (1 x 512MB) system memory, expandable to 1.0 GB
333MHz double data rate SDRAM
Two 120GB Western Digital Ultra ATA/100 (7200RPM) server grade hard drives
Configured for RAID 0, or Striping
DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive (4x2x12 DVD-RW, 16x8x32 CD-RW)
16x DVD-ROM; 48x CD-ROM
3.5" 1.44 MB diskette drive
Graphics & Sound
128MB SDRAM video memory
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200 graphics processing unit
Soundblaster® Live! 5.1 Audio
vpr Matrix 2-piece powered speakers (analog)
Expandability
1 (3.5"), 3 (5.25") external bays
2 (3.5") internal bays, upgradable to 4 (3.5")
1 (5.25") external expansion bay available
2 (3.5") internal expansion bays available with purchase of Hard Drive Bracket
5 PCI expansion slots (3 available)
1 AGP expansion slot
Communication & Connectivity
V.92 56K data/fax modem
Intel 10/100 Integrated NIC network card
2 front, 4 rear USB 2.0 Ports
1 parallel port
1 front, 1 rear IEEE 1394 (FireWire) ports
1 serial port
2 PS/2 ports (keyboard and mouse)
Keyboard & Mouse
vpr Matrix 104 Internet PS/2 keyboard
vpr Matrix PS/2 optical scrolling mouse
Software
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Software: Microsoft® Works® 7.0
CyberLink PowerDVD MPEG2 software
Vital Statistics
Dimensions: 17.1" H x 7.8" W x 18" D
Weight: 34 lbs.

looks like they havent taken advantage of the new p4 chipset
(http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/processors/pentium4/index.htm?iid=ipp_desk_proc+prod_p4p&)
*sigh* soon enough they will, and ill get a new one